The End of July

Here is a small glimpse of our end of July flurry before Ryan went back to work. 

 

The kids still fit double in the back of our bike trailer.  Layla got her face painted at a neighbor's party.  It was another neighbor that did the face painting!

 

Layla trying to pick up her little brother :)

 

Dentist- round 2.  The first time did not go so well (We have had a few successful trips prior to this one.) but she rocked the second appointment.  We are finally finished with all of her kindergarten appointments!

Our laundry room/mud room.  It was our first complete gut of a room.  We are finishing up the final chunks of the room this weekend.

 

 

 There have been lots and lots of performances and train play around here!

The zoo!

 

 

My friend Stephanie took this picture.  I love it!  Grady "saw" the zoo for the first time last week.  He understood all of the animals were real and he was so excited to see his books come alive.  It was very fun to watch.

Harvesting from our garden!

Soccer.  The last night was parents vs. kids.  Layla was so excited for this night.

 

Grady looks innocent here but he spent most of his time trying to play with the big kids.  He would go grab a ball and dribble through the pack.  He is a very talented soccer dribbler for a two year old but I was afraid he was going to get hurt running through the crowd constantly.  Our lesson from the evening: Grady wants to play sports.

Trophy!  It was a successful soccer season!

Preschool buddies

Baking cookies. 

 

 

And rain or shine, Grady loves his new (to him) rain boots.  

Summer Lovin'

Whew.  Last week was hot!  I love a hot summer week.  We stayed cool with lots of water activities.

  Ryan's birthday landed in the middle of the week so we hit the beach and our favorite Italian restaurant with both families.  It was a really fun day.  I love a summer birthday. 

Good thing....we celebrate in May, June and July in this family :) 

 

Layla remembered that she loved the flavor "Superman" from the ice cream shop last year.  I had absolutely no recollection of the name or flavor.  Sure enough, we walked in and Superman ice cream was waiting for her.  Her memory is officially better than mine.

 

 

Birthday time!

 

 

 

Now for a couple big ones down the slip and slide!!

 

 

 

I hope everyone is staying cool and enjoying summer.  We are trying to soak it all in and we are enjoying being much more settled this summer.  We actually moved into our home a year ago today! 



Gatlinburg

Tennessee!!  Ryan's parents generously let us trade in a week of their timeshare for our week in Tennessee.  Thank you, Cathy and Verlyn!  We stayed in a two bedroom/two bathroom cabin in Gatlinburg.  It was a great cabin with a beautiful view. 

And while everything was beautiful and the place was great, the forecast was not.  It was calling for 80-90% rain for our entire trip.  We decided to trudge ahead with all of our plans despite the weather.  It never stormed, only rained, and we were not really impacted by the weather.  Well, except we mostly used the indoor pool and the state of my hair was a bit crazy.... I do not wear wet hair well :)

Ripley's Believe it or Not Aquarium

We loved this place.  Everything was so close up and interactive.  We went back twice in the same day on the same tickets to check everything out.  Layla was still asking at the end of the trip to go back again.  I wish it was closer to us!

 

 

 

4th of July!

We traveled through the Smoky Mountain National Park for most of the day on the 4th.  They are beautiful.  I loved all of the water (waterfalls, streams, creeks, rivers) and watching all of the people exploring.  We mostly toured in our car and got out to explore at a few spots.  Our only disappointment was not seeing a bear.  We really wanted to see a bear while we were driving through.  Instead we saw a deer, a raccoon and a squirrel.  We think everything exciting must have been napping!

Cades Cove

 

 

 

Layla and I went horseback riding (Mr. Jack  is actually a mule!) through a trail in the Smokies.  Layla and I had fun and I was proud of Layla for being so brave to do this with me.

Swimming!

Dollywood

We really had a fun time at Dollywood.  We took advantage of the "come after 3 p.m. and get the second day for free" promotion.  Our favorites were the rides, games, the steam engine train and the fireworks. 

 

We had a great first road trip.  We hope to go back to the Smokies when the kids are older so we can explore more of the mountains and ride the roller coasters at Dollywood :)  And if we are there for the 4th of July, we can hit the midnight 4th of July parade next time!